The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has released its 191-page file on Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, revealing he was considered for an appointment to the White House in 1991, and that there was a bomb threat against him in 1985.

The public document is now available to view in its entirety at the FBI's official website. The document, first highlighted by Gawker, reveals that Jobs was considered for appointment to the President's Export Council by the George H.W. Bush administration in 1991.

A level III background investigation on Jobs was conducted at the request of the White House as he was being considered for the position. The file, author John Cook noted, includes an uncharacteristically high number of derogatory comments for an FBI investigation.

"Often the agents only interview employers and people who are suggested by the candidate," Cook wrote. "It's obviously unclear who these quoted folks are, but if they were among the people Jobs referred the agents to, then he didn't know his friends very well."

The names of the people who made the comments are redacted, but they include numerous statements characterizing Jobs as "deceptive," and having "questionable" moral character. One person said that "Mr. Jobs has integrity as long as he gets his way."

The documents also reveal a bomb threat that was called into Apple's headquarters on Feb. 7, 1985, in which an unnamed caller claimed to have placed "devices" to go off in the homes of certain individuals. The person said that a million dollars must be paid to them or they would detonate the bombs.

In response, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office canine unit made sweeps of the victims' residences and vehicles. No bombs were located.

The FBI's San Francisco Division maintained contact with Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., but no additional threatening calls were placed to the company. With no new information obtained, the case was considered closed as of August of 1985.

So every person who has a background check done by the FBI, even if they are only being considered for a government position, can have that report publicly displayed later? Seems like a big privacy issue. How many other people have had their entire history put online for everyone to see by the FBI?

A level III background investigation on Jobs was conducted at the request of the White House as he was being considered for the position. The file, author John Cook noted, includes an uncharacteristically high number of derogatory comments for an FBI investigation.

I wonder if that is why he was passed over for appointment? Who got it instead?

So every person who has a background check done by the FBI, even if they are only being considered for a government position, can have that report publicly displayed later? Seems like a big privacy issue. How many other people have had their entire history put online for everyone to see by the FBI?

on top of that, they left his Social Security # completely viewable...
Maybe it doesn't matter once you are are dead perhaps but it seems like someone could try to steal his identify nonetheless.

So every person who has a background check done by the FBI, even if they are only being considered for a government position, can have that report publicly displayed later? Seems like a big privacy issue. How many other people have had their entire history put online for everyone to see by the FBI?

Likely it depends in large part on the historical importance of public figures. It is difficult to think that private individuals are under the same rules as celebrities and other public figures.

The other consideration is transparency in government. It seems like a good thing that the FBI's work product be scrutinized, absent national security issues.

I wonder if that is why he was passed over for appointment? Who got it instead?

Quote:

Despite reservations about his personal integrity, the interviewees all said there was no reason Jobs should not be given the presidential appointment to the Export Council, which he subsequently received.

He would have made a great president. His ability to successfully invoke the reality distortion field would have come in handy. Term after term administrations have attempted to do this unsuccessfully. It just comes off as bald-faced lies.

See page 80, likely to be from Susan Kelly Barnes, former Controller of the Macintosh Division at Apple, VP and CFO at NeXT:
"She considered the Appointee to be a person of high integrity who was ethical and honest."
"The Appointee was well off and had more money that [sic] he could spend in a lifetime and his chief concern was how that wealth would be used after he was gone."

So every person who has a background check done by the FBI, even if they are only being considered for a government position, can have that report publicly displayed later? Seems like a big privacy issue. How many other people have had their entire history put online for everyone to see by the FBI?

There's got to be a time limit for privacy, or we'd have no history books. No biographies written a century later. I believe his privacy rights ended with his life.

If this had come out at the time, as it might have if there was a Senate hearing needed, it would have been a stink.

In actual terms, this is a decent report. The guy had enemies who said nasty things. Ho-hum. Bill Gates was arrested in New Mexico for late night hijinks. Ho-hum.

If he was dropped, by which president or president-elect(?) in 1991? Bush I or Clinton? I'd like to know the story.

People who say 'X' resembles Nazi Germany tend to have absolutely no idea what Nazi Germany was like.

For one thing, America if anything is becoming more socialist, i.e. left wing, not fascist, right wing.

I find it true that people who say "X" resembles socialist, left wing, or communist, have no idea what socialist or communist society would be like.

If America is getting closer to becoming more socialist, taxing the rich and give more benefit to the poor wouldn't even be a subject that needs discussion.

As far as economic policies goes, America is indeed getting closer to what Nazi Germany was like. Politically, you can characterize it as more authoritarian, without needing to specify it as left wing or right wing, because both wings behave pretty much the same at their extreme.

One of the individuals interviewed by the FBI said that he did not think that Jobs was ethical or trustworthy, but that Jobs was nonethteless definitely qualified for a government appointment, because such jobs do not require any ethics. Ha!

From context, it's pretty obvious that the interviewee was Woz. I love that guy.

Glad he didn't get the role actually. He would have been under the reign of the second biggest knob head in world history.

The first was obviously junior.

I surmise that he hated government because they get in the way of innovation at the behest of big business "who care about as much to me as a festering ball of dog snot. If you combined their IQ you might have enough intelligence to tie their shoelace... if they didn't drool over themselves in the meantime."